St. Pete Pro Mazda Race #1 Results

In the Pro Mazda race, it started out quite dicey with battles all over, and then started to settle in around the mid way point.

Neil Alberico got our front from his pole position and got a bit of space as others battled behind him. Santiago Urrutia started third and on lap two passed Daniel Burkett who dropped to third. The lap 2 top five was rounded out by Jose Gutierrez, and Pato O’Ward.

Wieron Tan was pressuring O’Ward on lap 13 when he overcooked it in to turn 4 and nosed in to the tire barrier. That damaged the left front corner, which became clear after Tan tried to back the car out and also had a banner wrapped around that suspension.

Also under the caution we saw something that surprisingly doesn’t happen often – a flag fell out of the flag stand. I’ll give them a break as it is crazy windy up there. That of course got picked up under the caution.

The yellow erased Alberico’s 3.5 second lead and gave us a top 10 of Alberico, Urrutia, Burkett, O’Ward, Latorre, Gutierrez, Owens, Owen, Kellet, Grist.

After the restart, we had a few shots at the lead, but that settled quickly with Alberico keeping the lead. Meanwhile, 15 year old Pato O’Ward from Monterrey, Mexico was all over back of Daniel Burkett. He nearly had it through turn one a couple times but wisely backed out when he wasn’t quite there.

That patience went away on lap 20 when O’Ward made the move again, but this time he didn’t get out of the gas soon enough, clipped the curbing in turn one and made contact with Burkett who spun out of third place.

Latorre goes to third the next time around as he passed O’Ward going in to one. That moved Latorre to third – up seven spots from his tenth starting position.

Burkett was able to get running again, but would wind up finishing the race in 14th.